Comments on: Deadlines: On Being a Professional Software Developer

By: http://

http:// — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 05:33:15 +0000

It’s so easy to miss deadlines especially if the ones setting them are non-tech people, which unfortunately, in my company is the case. Also, improper deadline estimates have a direct effect on software design and code quality.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:39:00 +0000

Interesting, but seems like an ad hoc criteria for professionalism. Perhaps misguided deadlines are the actual culprit behind the infamous failure rates within software development project. And conversely, you might be nailing deadlines but delivering cruddy or ill-conceived product. You’re raising a broad project management question that I think is a more nuanced affair.

By: http://

http:// — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:50:54 +0000

Since software engineering has more to do with inventing/researching than manufactoring/production, I would argue that deadlines is a very dangerous thing to the quality of software. Sure, we need some deliverables to keep the project going forward and avoid the student syndrome but I have seen too many hacks in the last week before a deadline to find them to be anything but unhealthy on the long term. The “we can always refactor later” just does not hold water, when managers gets to see any kind of output they immediately scream “ship it” and jump to the next version/phase in planning. So I try to provide frequent updates on my progress rather than saying “done by xxx”.

By: http://

http:// — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 06:41:23 +0000

I think professionals make quality products (and that quality is recognized by “users” when they pay for the products). Hitting deadlines is a component of quality. In some fields (software) it’s more important, in others not so much. My guess is it’s *very* important in fields that require large groups of people to work together.

By: Rob Walling

Rob Walling — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 04:00:22 +0000

Good point. In fact, your point holds for any great artist or performer: Picasso, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, etc… A work by someone with clout can still be a smashing success and be months, even years late. Being famous, amazingly talented, or beloved by lots of people tends to get you out of things that tie the rest of us poor saps down…like deadlines. Douglas Adams was a legend and could do what he wanted because we would all buy his books even if he delievered them late. Was he a professional? Absolutely. But the same rules that apply to you and I don’t apply to Mr. Adams. In thinking more about this, success seems like a better measure of being a professional than deadlines. In some fields, such as software, part of success is hitting deadlines. In others, such as writing a book, if you’re an unknown then success means hitting your deadlines and delivering a good book. If you’re Douglas Adams success means delivering a good book, and deadlines are much less relevant.

By: http://

http:// — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:27:54 +0000

So by your classification, Douglas Adams wasn’t a professional writer…?